72 Bodies Found on Mexico Ranch

The Mexican military says it has found the biggest dumping ground for cartel victims since the country's drug war began. Marines found 72 bodies in an outbuilding at a ranch in northern Mexico after a gun battle in which one marine and three suspected cartel members were killed, CNN reports. They had been led to the ranch by a wounded man who approached them at a checkpoint.

It's unclear whether the 58 men and 14 women had been killed at the same time or separately, said a military spokesman. A search of the ranch uncovered a stash of weapons, camouflage uniforms, and trucks that had been disguised to look like military vehicles. Tamaulipas, the northeastern state where the bodies were found, is being fought over by the Gulf and Zetas cartels.
(More Zetas stories.)